Category: Frequent Urination

I was one of the lucky ones. I found out I was Mercury Toxic within 2 months of getting ill. Most take years to find out…

The background:
I work on Oxford Street which is 3 minutes walk from Harley Street, so when I got ill and the doctors couldn’t help I searched for specialists in nutrition nearby – which is when I found Victoria from nutritionandvitality.co.uk. Easy. When I went through my HUGE list of symptoms and told her about the thrush around my mercury filling she immediately said “candida and mercury it is!” and ordered a hair mineral analysis test from Bio Labs and an Organic Acids test (discussed here in more detail).

The hair test showed high mercury although Victoria didn’t know why and couldn’t advise on how to get rid of it (so I started looking into it, read ‘my journey so far‘ here) I also showed high Candida levels on the Organic Acids tests which she helped me with an anti-candida protocol (as Mercury and Candida are linked) – although that’s for another post.

Bio Labs Toxic Metals Hair Test

A little about Mercury and what I’ve come to understand:

It ruins your immune system

It stops you using nutrients and minerals properly from your food

Taking supplements will help correct the point above as you’ll be throwing “loads of crap at the wall and some will stick”

You can correct most of your symptoms but you’ll always need to get Mercury out

Nearly every issue with your health, however much you doubt it at the time, it always comes back to the Mercury. Get it gone.

Biggest thing to remember (thanks Danny!):Put off chelation all you like, but no matter what you do or how you feel, you’ll need to get it out to resolve your health issues once and for all.

Anyway, moving on.

I called my old dentist (that I had used for years and trusted!) and said I wanted my Mercury fillings taken out and she asked me why. When I told her she said it was “a load of nonsense” but would remove them if I wanted. I booked myself in.

And just before getting the metal fillings taken out my Amalgam Illness book arrived. I was SO lucky that I read it in time! Talk about dodging a bullet!! The book said you MUST have your fillings removed safely or you’ll get even more sick. At this point that’s all I knew.

I started researching heavily. Very heavily. I needed to understand everything that the doctors were clueless about. Was it for my health or my ego? Both. I loved soaking up all this information.

I searched for a Mercury Free Dentist in London and found the IAOMT site and showed me a list of Mercury Free Dentists. I picked Carnaby Street Dental Practice as it was so close to my work. Kathrin there is AWESOME, and has tried many of the cleanses and things that I talk about on this blog. She’s a holistic dentist (I call her an Urban Hippie!) I talk about her more here under ‘Dentist’.

Some of the books at this point I read were:

Amalgam Illness by Andy Cutler

Hair Test Interpretation by Andy Cutler

The Mercury Diaries by Daniel Forsyth

The Yeast Connection by William Crook

A great article with 3 very short video’s talking about how dangerous Mercury is from Dr Mercola is here: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/08/27/optimize-your-oral-microbiome-avoid-fluoride.aspx It shows (on video 2) the readings of the levels of Mercury that come off fillings when brushing your teeth. Technology has caught up but the dental association hasn’t!

At that point I joined the forum and read Andy Cutlers “Amalgam Illness” book which both talked about a specific hair test for checking for Mercury, called “Doctors Data Toxic and Essential Elements” Hair test. As Andy’s books were written about the Doctors Data test I had to get one, the test Victoria had ordered me showed I had high levels but didn’t match the books closely enough to interpret fully.

Below is my first hair test which was sent on the 3rd March 2015. Now Mercury might not seem to be that high but if you understand the ‘counting rules’ you’ll understand that Mercury messes with you and messes us how your body excretes certain minerals. Essentially the counting rules state that if you have a certain amount of minerals that are too low, or a certain amount that are too high (like mine) Mercury is messing with how you excrete things. I had 3 of the 4 counting rules, which says I’m very toxic.

My first Doctors Data Toxic and Essential Elements Hair test

A best guess told me that I needed to supplement certain minerals that the test said I was deficient in. Magnesium, Boron, Selenium, Lithium etc etc. It also told me I needed to chelate like mad.

I met for dinner with Danny and he told me that whatever I did supplement wise my symptoms will get better but I’ll never be cured unless I chelate the crap out of the mercury. I set out to do 1 round every week. That’s 4 days on, 3 days off. As 3 months had passed I decided to get on the chelation-train…

My rounds went as below. Bear in mind that the ALA was taken every 3 hours for 4 days a week and DMPS every 6 hours for 5 days of the week. This ensured ALA was a round within the DMPS round.

12.5mg ALA – I felt amazing but post round I had prostate problems

3mg ALA – Smoooooth

3mg ALA – Smoooooth

3mg ALA – Smooth again.

5mg ALA – slightly bumpy but felt good on round!

8mg ALA & 5mg DMPS – a good round but was quite tough on adrenals and candida flared. DMPS seemed to mop up after ALA so not many post-round symptoms

20mg DMPS – my kidneys hurt a lot. I had to stop this round after 1 day. The pain went as soon as I stopped the round.

10mg DMPS & 12.5mg ALA – A good round although pee’d lots until I ate plenty food. This tells me it’s blood sugar related. ALA seems to do that to people and Chromium seems to help a bit. My energy picked up after this round.

10mg DMPS & 12.5mg ALA – this was a 6 day round and was harsh on me. My energy crashed and my stools went bright yellow for weeks and weeks. Note: it took 6 months and many different supplements to put the stool colour back to where it was. It was solved by a series of liver flushes (which the mercury forums advise against)

That’s a total of 75 days of chelation when combining ALA and DMPS.

As I said to Danny once: It sounds a lot to take on, but really the moment I pop the first pill in my mouth I never look back. In all honestly that’s the only tough bit. The first pill. Get over that, you’ve nailed your chelation.

Sometimes it felt like a Urinary Tract Infection although my tests NEVER showed one infection.

After having this for several years now it came up in conversation with Marek when we had a call last week. He said “I think you might have high oxalates. Stop eating high Oxalate foods such as Oranges, Spinach, Carrots, Rhubarb (Who eats that nowadays!), Nuts, and chocolate.” Hang on, I had a very high oxalate diet (most days). Even my protein was pea protein and was high in oxalates.

I researched heavily, downloaded an app for my iphone and cut down (bit by bit) on oxalates. Overnight my frequent urination stopped. Stopped dead. A great post I found on Marks daily Apple is here

What it an oxalate?:

It’s a toxin essentially. Oxalates are a common food chemical. They are indigestible to humans and for the most part should stay in the GI track and pass through unabsorbed. A healthy gut will resist absorbing them and will contain bacteria that break down oxalates to further protect the body. No benefit has been found to oxalates in the body.In fact they disrupt normal body functions on the cellular level. Once absorbed, the body needs to protect itself from them, either by putting them somewhere in storage or by excreting them. There is a limit to how much the body can excrete at once so if too much oxalate is absorbed at least some will be stored.If your detoxification systems aren’t working well, you might not excrete any.

It turns out that some people breakdown oxalates well – where? In THEIR GUT. If their gut can’t break down the oxalate you store it. In your kidneys (Calcium Oxalate Kidney Stones) your joints and other places. It’s not good.

Essentially if you have a high oxalate diet your body tries to get rid (or break it down) of what it can, if it can’t it stores it.

So, if you start a low oxalate diet it comes out of your cells into your blood stream and your kidneys try to flush it out. Stop all oxalates too quickly and you have a ‘honeymoon’ period where you feel amazing then you get hit hard.

Why is this so relevant? Because I before antibiotics I didn’t get this problem. What does that tell us… It’s to do with gut bacteria (or the gut at least).

There’s a particular type of gut bacteria that seems to get killed by antobiotics and causes this – called oxalobacter formigenes. Vitamin K also is relevant (probably due to gut damage).

This is what an oxalate crystal looks like under a microscope… No wonder they hurt! (and feel like a UTI)

Credit to http://uoitclinicalbiochemistry.weebly.com/urinalysis-crystals.html for the image

What symptoms does having oxalates bring?:

Kidney stones – check

Weakend Immune system – check

Urinary pain (like a UTI but no infection found) – check

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

COPD/Asthma

Vulvodynia/genital pain – check

Thyroid disease

Cystic Fibrosis

Fibromyalgia – check

Join Pain – check

Chronic Fatigue – check

Insomnia – check (although not of late)

Hormonal Imbalances – check

Chronic Candida – check

The cause and effects I have are:

Cut down oxalates > stop peeing so much.

Stop peeing so much > less prostate infections.

Replace gut bacteria (with the right type) > no need to cut down oxalates > stop peeing so much.

Stop peeing so much > no dehydration, less adrenal problems better energy.

To date, all I have cut out is:

Oranges

Spinach

Chocolate (what little I had)

Peanuts

Carrots

So far this small change has had a massive impact on my life. It’s the biggest leap I’ve had in months. Oxalates. If only doctors and specialists knew about this too!!! Medical professionals never seem to know the good things like this.

Update 14/8/16:
Even a month after posting this my frequent urination still hasn’t come back unless I cheat and have a high Oxalate food like chocolate.

If I do cheat I take a Calcium Citrate tablet as the Calcium bonds to the Oxalate and escorts it out of the body. BOOM!

Update 28/8/16:
I’m still not frequently urinating! Chocolate seems to be the trigger. Since the original post above I have tested Chanca Piedra to help break down the oxalate crystals / calcium in my kidneys (and seemed to help my liver clear out massively too!) and have just ordered HCA (hydroxycitrate) based on a study I found here – as apparently it helps break down calcium oxalate crystals too. I’ll report back!

So this week I have been told I have high levels of Oxalate which is why I form kidney stones, and that I need to go on a low Oxalate diet, I’ve also been reading into the Oxalate connection to mercury toxicity and candida and have found several strong references.

It seems that Oxalates are high in people with Autism, who have high candida levels, who also have high levels of mercury. The connections seem too strong…

Interestingly, from one of the sources discussed how having high levels of oxalate caused frequent urination and UTI symptoms even though no bacterial infection was found (this seems to be common amongst mercury toxic people (Me included)) and that oxalate-calcium kidney stones had candida and yeasts surrounding them.

For me (I’ll need to research even further) it confirms yet again that Mercury causes/contributes to so many of our ills, and high oxalates levels (and it’s ills) seem to be one of those things. Apparently going on a low Oxalate diet gives us a ‘honeymoon’ period and then a dump of oxalates which makes us feel crap. It also shows that having high levels of oxalates in the system causes us to feel crap too. How many mercury toxic people eat super healthy (such as eating spinach etc which have massive levels of oxalates) only to feel like crap some days and not know why?

A key realtime indicator is, if you pee and look at it in the toilet bowl – if the urine seems to sparkle/twinkle (called “disney pee”) that’s oxalate crystals in the water.

The symptoms high oxalate brings are:

If your body is not getting rid of the oxalates you are getting from your food (or from the bi-product of candida) these powerful and reactive molecules can cause a lot of problems.

It chelates toxic metals like mercury (we know how this makes us feel!)

burning urine flow

kidney stones i.e. oxalates combine with calcium to form these

leaky gut or all sorts of other gut problems

interstitial cystitis, aka burning bladder, often associated with hyperoxaluria (high levels of oxalate in the urine)

painful or inflamed joints, similar to fibromyalgia or arthritis

burning bowel movements

vulvodynia – external female genital pain or irritation

depression

developmental disorders in children, including autism

hives

My Oxalate ‘connection’:

From what I’ve found so far Oxalate problems come from a lack of gut bacteria particularly the Oxalobacter formigenes species and a Vitamin K deficiency. As this bacteria (and Vitamin K) is missing we can’t digest oxalates properly and they flow around our system in store in our cells, and calcium isn’t directed into the right places. This causes calcium and oxalate problems in joints, kidneys, the liver and such, and we feel crap. Bear with me…

Now, as most Mercury toxic people know, it ruins our gut bacteria (along with the antibiotics we’ve used throughout our life) – thus my connection.

What I’ve also found is that most Mercury groups discuss Oxalates, and most Oxalates discuss mercury – but no one seems to make the link!

The oxalate and autism connection intrigues me, as mercury and autism have a connection, candida and autism have a connection, gut bacteria and autism have a connection, frequent urination and bad digestion have connections to autism, candida and mercury have a connection to each other, and therefore by presupposition mercury and oxalate do too. The yeast connection is a huge one (have you read the book by W Crook?) as Candida can cause oxalate issues which contribute to autism too (which can be because of b1 and b6 deficiency’s). There’s just so many connections! How can the medical world ignore so much of it???

The protocols Ive seen are based around either VSL #3 (the strongest probiotic available at 700 billion) and Vitamin K in large doses, or drinking lots of cabbage juice and epsom salts. Oxalobacter formigenes unfortunately cannot be bought yet, however, what about fecal transplants? That should fix it right? I’m currently researching that, and will update this post when I know more!

Before Bali in 2013 I had a whole load of jabs including Hep A, Hep B and the Rabies jab (Rabipur). Within 24 hours I started getting pains in my legs, specifically my left knee. For months it felt ‘awkward’ and I couldn’t explain it. If I sat and took the weight off of it it hurt, and if I walked it hurt. I couldn’t seem to shake it off and went to Bali for 3 and a half glorious weeks.

Kidney Stones

The day after I returned I got struck with an evil pain in my left side of the abdomen and called an ambulance. I spent 2 days in a hospital bed and was found to have a kidney stone lodged in my ureter. It was hell. Why? Why suddenly start getting kidney stones? No one could tell me anything. I had 24 hour urine samples taken (where you carry around a 5 litre bottle and pee into it for a day) to see the levels of calcium in my urine, but everything came back fine. “come back in 6 months” the urologists said. I asked many doctors, urologists and search hundreds of websites for the reason why. All I’ve ever had was “drink more water”.

For a whole year I had kidney pains and my health deteriorated but I carried on worrying (and wondering) why I had these pains and why I formed these kidney stones. I kept getting UTI’s (urinary tract infections) so one day I visited my GP to carry out a dipstick urine test. Out pops a kidney stone into the toilet! The urine had no infection and they sent the kidney stone away for analysis.

Testicular Pains

2 weeks later I started getting pains in my testicles, like a dull throbbing pain, it seemed like my testicles had dropped and my balls were lower. Over the following weeks it got worse and worse. I visited my local doctor and he said it’s Epididymis, gave me loads of antibiotics and sent me on my way. After 10 days the pain went only to come back a few weeks later, but worse. Much worse.

THE Antibiotics & Gut health

The doctor gave me more antibiotics and sent me on my way – even though no infection had been found. 10 weeks. Yes, 10 weeks of several different wide-spectrum antibiotics I had and my health spiralled out of control.

My testicle pain got worse, my digestion shut down, I had SUPER bloating, I started getting chest pains so bad I had to call an ambulance, I started getting evil tendon pain, I started pissing 20-30 times a day, my energy disappeared (so much so that I didn’t have the energy to lift an umbrella for more than a minute) and I was falling apart. Thanks doc!

After 4 months of visiting the doctor 3 or 4 times a week one day I asked him what it could be causing all these symptoms, and he shrugged his shoulders and said “I don’t know how to help you Tim”. That was it. The gloves were off.

Around this time I got thrush in my mouth. It wasn’t just in my mouth, it was on one side all around the gum of one particular tooth. Why? It just happened to be one of my metal fillings (I had 6) luckily.

I knew my problem solving brain would have to hit the books (and Google) and find out myself.

The moment of realisation

After researching kidney stones, antibiotics and tendon pain I found that there were many like me on the forums with the exact same problem. The first one was the antibiotics. Ciprofloxacin was the main one I had for 10 weeks is known to cause tendonitis. It’s got a black box warning! People have been hospitalised by it and are now wheel-chair bound as a result! They call themselves “floxies“. I found on several medical sites that people with magnesium deficiencies are susceptible to getting tendonitis with Cipro. I started magnesium citrate immediately. I also realised that if you have low magnesium it can cause calcium issues (see the link to kidney stones?!).

I also looked into ‘metal fillings’ which turned out to be called “amalgam” which is made of several cheap metals including MERCURY!!! I googled “Metal Filling Thrush” and found out about Mercury Poisoning (also called Amalgam Illness) which suppresses your immune system and when combined with antibiotics can cause Candida (as you kill all the bacteria off in your gut yeasts can flosrish). It was all overwhelming, but I had started running down the rabbit hole. I had found some huge things.

The dentist

Quite honestly the evidence online was so compelling that I decided to get the damn mercury fillings out asap. I called my standard dentist and asked for the amalgam to be removed to which she responded “I don’t believe in that nonsense but I’ll remove them for you if you really want”. I booked an appointment just incase, and couldn’t believe her response. I started looking for a dentist in London near my office (by this time my health was very poor and couldn’t get into work) and found a holistic dentist on Carnaby Street. Kathrin.

When I met Kathrin (who has been a huge help of my journey) she told me about another patient of hers “Danny” who had been through almost the same issues as me. She lent me a book called “The Mercury Diaries” and told me to read it ASAP. All I can say is WOW. Danny was a hardcore dude. He had been through far worse than me, so much that at one point he could only eat salad! I’ll come back to him…

Kathrin booked me in and removed my Amalgam fillings using Mercury Safe Dentistry procedures and I started to get better. I knew there was something in this even though the government won’t admit it (they’d get so many court-cases if they admitted they’ve mucked up and allowed this toxic metal in our mouths for years!).

The Nutritionist, Candida & Mercury

As I worked in the W1 area in London I decided to find a nutritionist in Harley Street to help me with my low magnesium.

When I met Vicky and told her what had gone on, she immediately said you’ve got “Candida”. This was the first time anyone had said anything that made sense. She told me it was controversial with the medical profession (I have since quizzed about 15 professionals who don’t believe you can get it unless you have AIDS (which I don’t)) and sent off a urine sample test called “Organic Acids Test” (apparently the gold standard for candida). It confirmed I had very high levels, so she recommended an “anti-candida diet” which meant not having any sugar at all. NO sugar at all, including sweet vegetables, no pasta (eww), no white rice (carbs) and definitely no fructose.

The book she recommended was The Yeast Connection. It explains why we get Candida, what it is, what it does to you and how to rid your body of it.

Vicky also sent off a hair mineral analysis test to check for heavy metals. They came back high for Arsenic and Mercury! Her approach was to kill the Candida and nothing with the Mercury. What I found interesting is that Candida has an affinity to Mercury, so when you have Mercury you have Candida overgrowth! (she didn’t seem to know this) Things were starting to fit into place for me. Lose the mercury, the sugar and then the Candida will follow.

Danny Boy – Aka “Sunshine”

I read the Mercury Diaries (Danny also has a great blog) hanging on every single word. It’s like this guy was me. He had all the same problems (but worse)!

He was an avid user of the Frequent Dose Chelation Forum on Yahoo, and his username was Sunshine. It turns out that most of his health issues resolved after doing “chelation therapy” to get the mercury out of his body. He tells his story of being super-ill with all the therapies and supplements and what they do – everything was mapped out. From Liver Flushes to fix the liver, to Adrenal Cortex Extract (ACE ACE BABY as he calls it) to stable the adrenals and even his Master Cleanse Diet (also know as the Lemonade diet). He laid most of it out for me.

I needed to know more. I needed to meet him.

When we first met, we met in Central London fairly near to both our offices. 10 years older than me, but we got on well. He was a dude. I highly recommend you read his book!

The main things I took were on the following:

Liver Flushes

Slow and steady wins the race (with regards to Chelation)

‘It’s a minefield out there’ – i.e. research everything before popping new pills

Sole (salt Water) drink

Andy Cutler’s protocol for Chelation

Natural Thyroid support

The Private Functional Medicine Doctor

My NHS GP had been useless. They had made me worse. I’m 100% certain of that. I moved on, I needed some guidance in this “minefield” so I went to see Dr Mantzourani. She was £300 an hour or £180 for half an hour. You’ve got to make every single second count!

She ran countless tests and didn’t believe I had Mercury Toxicity (as per all Doctors) as she checked my blood and urine for Mercury – which both showed ‘within limit’ levels. What she doesn’t seem to understand is that Mercury stores within your fatty tissues and sits there more than floating around in your blood! More was clicking into place.

Of the tests the Dr ran several came back saying my gut was leaky and that I had no good gut bacteria. She thought all my issues we were my gut (I agree a lot stems from there, but not everything).

She also said I had very low testosterone, and prescribed me a transdermal gel called Testogel. This helped my body hugely as with all adrenally fatigued mercury toxic victims T is nearly always low. There are better natural ways to make your body make it’s own (Adrenal Cortex Extract and Licorice Root Extract).

I supplemented with Testogel for about a year, but decided to come off of it. I found by using Licorice root and adrenal cortex extract I balanced my adrenals far better. A huge connection there is being hydrated properly. Many people with Mercury issues have genetic mutations which cause B12 problems and with B12 / methylation problems come magnesium and POTASSIUM issues – which means you’re dehydrated however much water you drink – which stresses your adrenals. I take 1.5g of potassium a day and use Sole Water (made from himalayan rock salt) solution which nails the problem.

Pituitary issues are common with Mercury and contribute to the adrenal issues above. I found I had low Growth Hormone Levels (HGH/IGF-1) and managed to get my endocrinologist to prescribe me it as a result, which helped my body heal better too.

Andy Cutlers Amalgam Illness book & Chelation

Although I had read The Mercury Diaries (it spelt out most of the protocol) Danny had told me to buy Andy Cutlers Amalgam Illness book so I could fully understand Chelation before embarking on it. The key difference is that most medical ‘professionals’ (including doctors and dentists) do IV chelation which can cause serious issues, or use natural supplements that haven’t been tested widely. Andy’s protocol is based around the half-life of the Chelators, which for my chosen Chelator (alpha lipoic acid) is 3 hours. So 1 tablet every 3 hours round the clock for 3 days a week. It’s pretty hardcore but works a treat (so I was to find out).

My first and 1 year post-chelation hair test can be found here (link to follow shortly)

Hormones, Adrenal Fatigue & Thyroid

Since seeing my super expensive GP I found out that my adrenals were shot (due to low T) to pieces. Danny also talked about this in his book quite extensively. I had no energy, I couldn’t wake up, and my body wasn’t fixing itself well. After several months of taking a generic version Armour Thyroid and lots of adrenal support I was getting places slowly. Sure it had worked a bit…

I decided to find a specialist to help with this. Enter Marek. Marek is talked about in more detail here.

Human Growth Hormones (HGH)

Sure, I was getting better (80% better I reckon) but I wasn’t right. A friend of mine told me about HGH – this drug that makes your body grow again, fix itself better and makes you feel like superman. It’s not an anabolic steroid, it’s a growth hormone. Very different.

Anyway, I decided to get my levels tested and they were low, so I managed to persuade my endocrinologist to trial me on it. WOW. My nails started growing again, I found my energy SHOT up – I started running up all the stairs in every tube station every day. It worked, but something was still holding me back. I’d get headaches, infections and the occasional candida flare up (but a lot less) and my white blood cell count shot up from 3.1 to 6.7!

What we know is that Mercury poisons the Pituitary gland, which messes with things like HGH, Melatonin and other hormones, and until you chelate the Mercury out it won’t work right. Therefore, supplementing in the meantime can help you get back up to speed.

Prostate Problems

Since day 1 of my kidney stones I would get twitches in my perineum area and it would be an effort to pee. As I got ill-er and ill-er my prostate would flare and I’d be standing trying to pee for 20 minutes. For someone with Frequent Urination problems you can see the double issue here! I would say alongside the energy my prostate and frequent urination issues have been the worse symptom of all.

Having a weekly prostate massage by my urologist and daily self-massages (it’s not fun like they make out in the movies guys) it helped calm and helped me pee, but it’s flared many times over the last 2 years. I’ll talk more about this on a page dedicated to the prostate in due course…

Where I am now…

This was a ‘little’ post to give you an idea of how the last 3 years has been. Luckily I work and live next to Harley Street so I’ve had access to the best medical help in the world (a lot on my insurance too!) although I have found that the pharma world hasn’t helped a great deal. Most help has come from forums and natural practitioners such as Vicky, Marek and Kathrin.

From this point onwards I’ll add a page for each issue, supplement, finding or connection of symptoms – as I’ve found some beauties that not many people seem to have put together, yet.